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Tuesday, 31 March 2015

2015 is a tough year so far... My Granny died last Sunday, less than 3 months after my granddad. I feel very sad but also very lucky I got to have her in my life for so long. Also, I am happy that she is now with my grand-dad - she longed for that in the last weeks.

She had my blanket with her all the time. That made me feel really close to her and I felt very connected to her. Making blankets for loved ones is such a wonderful thing!

* * * * * * *

Anyway, as my granny was really into crochet, I am sure she would like me posting a tutorial in her memory...

If you are following us on Instagram or Facebook, you already know that I am working on a new beanie design. I had to learn the hdc invisible decrease stitch which is pretty easy once you get it. However, I wasn't too fond of the tutorials around for it on the web, so I decided to write one up myself. Here is goes...

Tutorial

When you use traditional hdc decrease stitches it will be visible as seen in the following pic.

The aim of the invisible decrease is to make the decrease look like a normal stitch. For this you will work into the front loops of the two stitches from you previous row. I marked them in the following two pics.

Yarn over and insert the hook into the front loop of the first stitch. Don't pull through, do not yarn over again. You now have three loops on the hook.

Insert the hook into the front loop of the second stitch. You now have four loops on the hook (as seen in the next two pictures).

Yarn over hook, then pull the yarn through the two front loops. You now have three loops on the hook.

Pull the yarn through the remaining three loops. And voila! Your invisible decrease is finished!

Saturday, 28 March 2015

My week wasn't quite as exciting as Michelle's (she talked about her winning at the Royal Easter Show here) but still pretty good!

Yesterday, I jumped into a train to Cologne (about 1 1/2 hours away from here) to go to the h & h. The h & h is the International Trade Fair for Handcrafts and Hobbies. According to the webpage it is "the central meeting place for the entire handcraft industry" and it most certainly was!

I went there with the lovely Sandra from TussiTempel (go check out her shop! She makes stunning beanies!!!). We only knew each other from Facebook before but boy, we had a splendid time! She is just as crazy as I am about soft, wonderful and colourful yarn! I can tell you ... there was a lot of squealing and giggling involved! Thank you Sandra for the wonderful time!!

There were over 400 exhibitors and I think we saw most of the yarn stalls. There were heaps of them and I got to know new yarn brands and little individual makers. I wish I could tell you about all of them but then this post would get epically long... So just some insights!

Rosy Green Yarns. Oh my! I think I am in love! So soft and such great colours!! I have far too many projects on my hand right now but I am a 100 % sure I will order yarn from them sometime this year. All of their yarns are organic. Unfortunately I didn't take pics of their stall. I think I was drooling too much to remember...

I got to see (and touch) the new Stylecraft Special DK colors! Are you jealous?! I really like the new colors and they fit well into the range! Also I got to see their Alpaca Tweed Yarn. Wow! I see beanies coming in the future...! I got to talk to the ladies at the stall and showed them Michelle's award winning blanket. Wish I could have stayed longer (touching the yarn... they must have tought I was crazy...).

There is so much more to tell but for now I'll let you enjoy the pictures!!

Tuesday, 24 March 2015

Hello everyone! Just a short blog post tonight, but I'm exploding with excitement that I just have to share with you all!!Tonight was the Preview Exhibition for the Sydney Royal Easter Show Arts and Crafts Competition. You mightremember that I entered a Road Trip Scarf, a candy happypotamus (General Millie, Captain Poprocks' future wife) and my Rainbow Twist and Turn Bargello Afghan into the competition. It was my first time entering, so I wasn't expecting anything - just getting my entries on display would have been amazing.

BUT! I did so much better than that! Not only did all three of my items end up on display...

... I won SECOND PLACE in the Crochet Art section for the Rainbow Twist and Turn Bargello Afghan...

... and FIRST PLACE (BLUE RIBBON!!) FOR GENERAL MILLIE IN THE CROCHETED/KNITTED SOFT TOYS SECTION!!!!

Plus, by the time we got to the exhibition, an hour after it opened, the scarf and happypotamus had already been purchased :D :D :D I'm still fizzing about the place several hours later, just so excited and thrilled and beaming like an idiot (see above pictures for proof)!!

THANK YOU all for your support and appreciation for the crochet work that Anne and I create! It gave me the confidence to enter the Show, and I am just so happy with the results!

Friday, 20 March 2015

Hello everyone!Thank you for all your lovely comments on Anne's story about Mr AlienBunny and Ms Long-Ear! I love all the photos, and I hope they get to live happily ever after!If you can't wait for our twice-weekly blog posts, you can also find us on Facebook and Instagram where we post pretty often with WIP updates and pretty things that pass by during the day :)

NEW BLOG URLYou might have noticed that we have a brand new blog url!! Our new home is

The old URL (crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.com) still works of course, but we found that some people trying to find the blog, and us sometimes, forgot that although our blog name is Crochet Between Worlds, the old URL said Crochet Between TWO Worlds! Hopefully now it will be easier for people to find us :)NEW PATTERN - COMING SOONIn other news, we have been doing some pattern designing and testing this week - what do you think?

I made a little coin purse with this pattern, and Anne is working on a pattern for a flaming beanie! JULIE YEAGER'S MYSTERY CAL AFGHAN SQUAREI've now finished my rainbow version of Julie Yeager's Mystery CAL Afghan Square! The full pattern is now available on Julie's website at http://julieyeagerdesigns.com/?p=277. This is the best kind of CAL for me - only a few rows a day, and one square at the finish line! Now I'm trying to decide what to do with it - do I make more squares but change the colour order? Expand it further to make a bigger square? Turn it into a cardigan back? Do you have any more ideas?

SOPHIE'S UNIVERSE CAL UPDATEPhew, we are now halfway through the Sophie's Universe CAL! There were so many single crochet stitches in this week's pattern - 520 alone in the last row! Michelle's:

Nicole's (she's up to Part 6, but catching up quick, especially since she only picked up a hook for the first time 2.5 months ago!):

and Kathryn's:

I love them all!A QUESTION FOR YOUAnne and I want to do a Christmas Market towards the end of the year - we've looked at real life markets around Sydney for when she comes to visit me in Australia, and also markets around her area, and such things are just going to be too difficult, being in two different countries.BUT THEN

We thought maybe a Facebook Christmas Market including all our wonderful blog friends might be fun! It would probably be in late November to allow for postage times, and can include all sorts of arts and crafts that people can buy for decorations, Christmas presents or even just for themselves ;)

Would you be interested in putting some of your items up for sale at the Crochet Between Worlds Christmas Market? If so, send us a message on our Facebook page at Crochet Between Worlds!

Tuesday, 17 March 2015

Today I bring to you the magical lovvvee story of Mr Alienbunny and Ms Long-Ear. Grab a cup and tea, some biscuits and enjoy!

The Love Story of Mr Alienbunny and Ms Long-Ear

Mr Alienbunny lived in a town named Koblenz, an old town built by the Romans. He had a very good life among the wine hills and enjoyed life a lot. However, he also felt... empty. He wasn't sure what he was missing at all, so he started his journey to fill the emptiness.

He tried to enjoy the smell of the first spring flowers but it didn't help. He still felt empty.

He went out for drinks with his mate Mr Giraffe from Australia. They had a very good time but the next morning Mr Alienbunny still felt empty inside. Oh and he had a terrible hangover. Poor little one.

One day, he heard of two wise owls, so he went to see him. They had a very long talk together and the two owls told him of their love for each other and suggested that Mr Alienbunny longed for love.

At home, Mr Alienbunny spent a long time thinking about love which he only knew from the movies. After some days, he decided he had to look for love! He said goodbye to his friends, packed his bags and started his journey in his Lego Mini Cooper.

It was a very long and hard journey. He met lots of nice people but no love.

That is, until he arrived in Dortmund, a town in the middle of Germany. There he saw HER! In the middle of a field of roses... She was soo beautiful! But would she like him?!

He waited until she left the field of roses and started to talk to her. Her name was Ms Long-Ear and she was very lovely indeed! Native to Dortmund, she told him all about the town.

They agreed to meet again the next day and Ms Long-Ear was delighted by the flower Mr Alienbunny got for her.

For hours they talked... and fell in love!

After some weeks together, they decided to pack their bags into Mr Alienbunny's car and travel the world. So far they are having a really good time! Should you meet them, have a glass of wine with them - I am sure they will love to talk to you and tell you their story in person!

Friday, 13 March 2015

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments - we love reading and replying, and also reading your blogs to find out what's happening in your worlds :) You can find us on Bloglovin', and also on Facebook and Instagram for updates in between posts. Today I delivered my competition entries to the Sydney Royal Easter Show! I'll find out by post whether I've had any success, and I am hoping to go to the exhibition on Tuesday 24 March to see if my work has been exhibited - wish me luck!

Part 9 of the Sophie's Universe CAL was released this week! Amongst other things, the rows of very cute pink tulips are now on both sides! Also, the "short sides" are now longer than the "long sides"... Thank you to my amazing photographer Kiah who stood in at the last minute to save my shaking hands from blurry photos :)

Kathryn is also finished with Part 9 now:

Nicole has left the Garden and is now journeying through the Universe!

If you love Julie's patterns as much as I do, you'll be thrilled to know that as part of National Crochet Month, she is offering discount codes!! The codes are on her blog, and you should definitely go get them and then drool over her patterns on Ravelry ;)

Blog people

Hi there! We are Michelle and Anne and we share this blog! We have been friends for ages even though we live in different sides of the world (Australia and Germany). We share a common passion which is crochet (hence the blog name) but we blog about Australia, Germany, food and other stuff we like too.